The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation today announced the five chambers of commerce selected to participate in the Career Readiness Lab, through which they will each receive $95,000 to implement a work-based learning program that better connects students with academic and experiential learning opportunities in their community.

Ask a group of students when they first used their school’s career services office, and you may hear that they stopped in sometime during their final semester. They may even say they made use of those services only during their last month. Even worse, many -- perhaps nearly half -- would say they never visited the office at all. It’s a worrying response that’s having an impact on students’ lives after graduation.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation today announced new support from Lumina Foundation and Walmart to begin the next phase of the T3 Innovation Network. With their support, the U.S. Chamber Foundation will leverage emerging technologies to implement a series of projects that will modernize the U.S. talent marketplace and align learner, education, and workforce data to create seamless transitions from education to career pathways for all workers in the United States.

Please join America Succeeds and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation for the Age of Agility Summit D.C., the culmination of the Age of Agility National Tour that convened business, education, and policy leaders to seek solutions for aligning education pathways to the future of work.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that by 2020, there will be 1 million more computing jobs than workers to fill them. Demand for jobs in data science alone has grown 300 percent over the last four years. Tech skills like cloud computing and user interface design top the list of the most in-demand skills. It’s a challenge that stems, in part, from the well-documented divide between higher education and the world of work. And the challenge is only accelerating as the shelf life of skills shrinks.

When economists and editorialists speak in worried tones about America’s “skills gap,” they’re referring to the mounting number of jobs that require some degree of technical know-how and the relative dearth of qualified candidates to fill them.

Looking across the country, there are a range of current and future challenges influencing America’s ability to remain competitive in the race for talent. Companies everywhere are growing and the most crucial factor influencing corporate decisions on where to locate or expand operations is the ability to recruit the best workforce. Therefore, regions with the most skilled workers will not only grow more organically but also have other companies, both national and international, opening facilities there.

At the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, we are engaging a wide variety of business, education, and quality assurance partners on how to build the missing piece of a new triad, one that can provide better quality signals from employers for both traditional higher education programs and non-traditional programs, such as apprenticeships. The goal? To ensure learners have the information they need on which programs deliver the most aligned career pathways, and employers know which programs they can turn to for reliable talent.